WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 570: Best Friend (3)
──────
- Ictus (ἸΧΘΥΣ)
It had been two days since the Management Bureau's intervention had utterly destroyed the ongoing first-half financial report.
The situation was steadily descending into chaos.
Sunrise's directors and major shareholders had suffered a tremendous shock after brutish soldiers suddenly grabbed them by the collars and even slapped them.
Not even the trust Director Yohan had built up over the years could solve that.
--- Bzzz! Bzzz!
“Ictus.”
“Please call me Yohan whenever possible.”
“Hmm, I like that! Yohan, I think your phone's ringing?”
The person sitting across from me was a beauty striking enough to inspire awe, yet the young lady was doing nothing but sipping her drink.
My conversation partner was the parrot on the table.
I'm no ordinary person myself, but lately, I really can't make heads or tails of anything.
“My phone's been going wild since yesterday. The directors and shareholders want an explanation.”
“An explanation?”
“They want to know what on earth we did for the Management Bureau to intervene.”
“Piiiii...”
“Don't just go piiiii. At this rate, Sunrise is finished. Do you think anyone in this world isn't afraid of the Management Bureau? Even if you make billions, if a Management Bureau soldier comes and fires a single shot, everything will-”
“Don't get worked up. I told you, the Management Bureau won't intervene in Sunrise's affairs.”
The Management Bureau would not intervene in Sunrise's affairs.
It was a dreamlike story I could hardly believe, but surprisingly, there was solid evidence behind it.
Right in front of me, an agent had found me and obediently withdrawn.
At the time, I'd only been surprised, but once I calmed down and thought it over, the answer became clear.
This ‘friend’ had connections to the Management Bureau.
It wasn't merely a matter of using divine power to charm a few employees. This friend even had ties to an ‘agent’!
Were they simply connections?
If not...
“Friend, just in case... Are you perhaps a member of the Management Bureau?”
My friend twisted its beak as though the very idea were ridiculous.
Having seen it several times, I'd realized that gesture, something no normal bird would make, clearly meant ‘mockery.’
“You don't need to hide it! Even if you're a Management Bureau agent, I can accept that. No, in that case, I should serve you. I'm prepared to serve you. I-”
My words seemed to throw the parrot off a little, and it tilted its head.
“What? You're prepared to serve an agent?”
“That's what I'm saying.”
“... Um, Ictus-”
“Yohan.”
“Did you forget what I told you about the truth behind the past you've forgotten?”
“The truth?”
“I told you Apollion's death was a Management Bureau plot. But-”
“Friend, what's past is past.”
My dignified father, Apollion, whom I'd served all my life, had been destroyed.
According to my friend, it had been a Management Bureau plot. I wasn't surprised, since I'd suspected as much before I even heard it.
“What’s past is past?”
“I loved my father. My father must have loved me too. So wouldn't he want his son to go on living well?”
“... I think he'd want revenge.”
“Oh, come on! You frustrating friend! Would revenge bring Apollion back to life? The dead, whether person or god, should be forgotten, and those left behind should live a new life!”
The parrot suddenly opened and closed its beak like a fish, then turned its head toward Elena.
“Snrk!”
“Miss Elena?”
“Pfft! Ahaha! He really means it.”
He really means it?
Did she just tell whether I was being honest or lying?
The parrot wasn’t the only unusual one. This young lady wasn’t ordinary either!
“That was sincere?”
“Haha! Director Yohan, you're more interesting than I expected. All right, I understand. But we're really not part of the Management Bureau. We're not on the same side as them. We just know a few people.”
“... Is that so.”
That was disappointing.
I'd desperately hoped the two of them were members of the Management Bureau.
After all, only the Management Bureau could settle the turmoil currently engulfing Sunrise!
“Let's return to where we started. Sunrise is in crisis. The directors and shareholders demand an explanation, but I have no way to give them one.”
“Ah, is that why you asked whether we were Management Bureau people?”
“What do you intend to do? I have no right to beg a friend, but you don't want to watch the company collapse like a sandcastle, do you?”
The parrot, which somewhat resembled an umbrella cockatoo, tilted its head.
“Of course not. Elena.”
Then the young lady placed a sheet of paper with a drawing on it on the table.
“What is this?”
“The design for the sculpture we commissioned. It'll take a few more days to complete.”
“Hmm? This is...”
“What do you think?”
It was an extremely elaborate animal sculpture.
“A horned owl sculpt-”
“Owl.”
“An Owl sculpture? In any case, if it turns out like the drawing, it looks incredibly expensive. It's covered in jewels. Don't tell me you're planning to use real ones?”
“Of course.”
“What's the purpose?”
“Listen carefully.”
...
After listening to the explanation for a long while, I reached one conclusion.
“There's a saying. If someone hates you for no reason, give them a reason to hate you.”
“And?”
“... I've been thinking about how we can escape the Management Bureau's grip, but it feels like you're giving them a very clear reason to hate us.”
That was why I felt uneasy.
“That's a strange comparison.”
“What?”
“The Management Bureau never hated Sunrise for no reason. Ictus, you're the reason itself.”
“... Call me Yohan. I'll convene the board soon.”
* * *
“He's an interesting person!”
“Isn't he absurd? Yesterday, when I told him the truth hidden behind Apollion's death-”
“Not the truth. The lie Ga-in made up.”
“... I told him a lie, and he even shed tears.”
“Really?”
“Then today, he comes in saying the dead demon is dead, but he needs to live. What? He was prepared to faithfully serve me if I was an agent?”
“He has a very ‘flexible’ way of thinking.”
* * *
- Ictus (ἸΧΘΥΣ)
The moment the board meeting began, chaos broke out.
“Director Yohan, what on earth is going on?!”
“I, I still dream about that gorilla-like agent!”
“How can a person... How can a person be over three meters tall?”
If someone's three meters tall, they're not Homo sapiens! What an idiot!
“The hardship from that day isn't the only problem! If soldiers start pointing guns at us whenever they please, can the company keep running? What... what does this diamond badge even mean?!”
The one saying that was the one who'd knelt and wept on the day they received their diamond badge.
“Director Yohan!”
“...”
“Yohan, Yohan, you!”
“...”
I remained silent, ignoring the voices coming from all directions.
In a conversation, the other side had to be made to beg.
After I kept silent for about five minutes, the room gradually began to quiet down.
Now.
--- Clap!
I lightly clapped my hands, and everyone's gaze turned toward me.
“I fully understand your concerns. I've prepared an answer as well.”
I spoke as I felt anticipation quietly rising around me.
“Today, I came to discuss two things. First, the tyranny of the Management Bureau that you fear will no longer occur.”
“Are you telling us-”
“To believe that?”
“Hey! He's speaking!”
“He's just talking nonsense-”
Scattered unrest.
Then again, this wasn't a situation where they could easily relax just because I told them to.
They needed proof.
Proof that the Management Bureau would not attack us.
A miracle created by my ‘friend’!
“Everyone, a guest will be coming in shortly. Please remain silent.”
“A guest all of a sudden? Yohan! Bringing in some wealthy person doesn't mean we can relax-”
“Please remain silent.”
“...”
The meeting room fell quiet once more.
Soon, the door opened, and ‘someone’ entered.
The agent's build was closer to that of a gorilla than a human. Not quite the absurd three-meter figure mentioned, but still a giant over two meters tall.
“Hey! I recognize all these faces. How've you all been?”
“...”
“No answer? Hey, what did you say your name was before?”
“M, my name is Park Jin-bong, Agent.”
“Loosen up. I came today because Director Yohan invited me.”
The agent who had terrified the directors only two days earlier had appeared in person!
Unlike that day, though, the agent no longer looked like they intended to use their fists.
“Where do I sit? Hey! Yohan!”
“Please sit wherever you're comfortable.”
It was somewhat rude, informal speech.
Still, considering the agent's position, I had to accept it.
More importantly, the agent acted as though we were close, and everyone was staring wide-eyed!
Yes, this was it.
Only a Management Bureau agent could calm the fear brought by the Management Bureau.
...
Just how did my ‘friend’ command an agent like that?
It said it didn't belong to the Management Bureau, but that only made it more of a mystery to me.
“Everyone, do you now believe me when I say the Management Bureau's tyranny will no longer occur?”
Everyone nodded as though enchanted.
“Then it's time to begin the second matter. Let us go. To Sunrise's Sanctuary.”
“A, a Sanctuary?”
A Sanctuary in a company, not a religious organization?
I fully understood the directors' confusion.
In truth, even I, the company's founder, hadn't known the company would get a Sanctuary.
* * *
The basement of Sunrise's headquarters building.
Since it was an enclosed place that no one normally had reason to visit, the air felt somewhat stifling.
Before the door to the ‘Sanctuary,’ I turned back and met everyone's eyes.
Their eyes were still full of confusion.
It was only natural. I'd brought them here without offering any explanation.
“Everyone gathered here is at least Diamond rank.”
The heart of multilevel, or network, marketing was rank.
A strict hierarchy running from Bronze to Platinum to Ruby to Sapphire to Emerald to Diamond!
Within a system designed to stir competition, lower ranks burned with ambition to rise, while higher ranks gained psychological satisfaction and loyalty.
“In other words, you are Sunrise's true family. Therefore, you are qualified to receive the company's ‘true secret.’”
A true secret.
For reference, that secret had been created two days ago.
“Please come in.”
--- Creak!
When the Sanctuary's door opened, people surveyed the inside with bewildered expressions they couldn't hide.
It was a strange place, filled with bizarre paintings and sculptures.
Candles and incense burned everywhere, leaving the room hazy.
A few directors who inhaled the pungent smoke coughed and looked dazed.
Without a word, I knelt before the sculpture at the center of the Sanctuary.
“Director Yohan?”
“What is that?”
“It's some kind of bird sculpture-”
“Come over here.”
The people gathered with awkward expressions.
I bowed my head toward the sculpture with somewhat exaggerated gestures.
The line was-
Oh dear, I don't think we'd decided on that sculpture's name.
We'd prepared all sorts of things in such a short time that we'd left a gap in a completely unexpected place.
“Director?”
What had the blonde young lady called my friend?
Pero?
“...”
“Director, what exactly is this-”
“Rooooo...!”
“Hm?”
With my hands pressed together, I spoke again.
“Rooooo...! Rooooo...! O Great One! Here stands Yohan, the foolish one, before you. Grant me wisdom.”
The people flinched.
I could hear them.
Someone asking whether this was a cult.
Murmurs wondering if Director Yohan believed in some strange religion.
Sighs that this was why the Management Bureau had come.
Whispers that there had been an agent at the meeting earlier.
There was more distrust than faith.
How sad, how sad!
You foolish mortals!
What could I do to lead these foolish commoners onto the path of light?
“... Grant me wisdom.”
Yohan! Ictus!
Had you still not learned patience after enduring such hardship?
Naturally, the ignorant attain Enlightenment later than the wise.
For now, all I had to do was wait for a ‘miracle’ to arrive.
--- Piiik!
With a mystical sound, or rather, a noisy sound that seemed mystical only because of the atmosphere, a parrot appeared and perched on the Owl sculpture's shoulder.
Then something strange happened.
“Good heavens! W, what is this?!”
“What is it? Is there some electricity running through-”
“Please be quiet.”
“S, sorry, Yohan-”
“Quiet.”
The parrot trembled as if it had been struck by lightning.
Today was the first time in my life I'd learned that parrots could ‘act’ too.
The parrot, trembling as though possessed by a god, opened its beak.
“Piiiii! Bugok-dong Saebit Apartment crash, Singil-dong 264 land, Sinyongsan Station line expansion, Gyeongseong New City Cheongun-dong redevelopment resumes-”
“Whoa! W, what is this?!”
“- 925th draw, numbers 2, 11, 45, 1, 29, Nomedichemical new drug, Galaxy Note 11 battery explosion, do you believe this? Daeseong IDT September good news, Jindo Coin stable in October-”
“Uh, uh! A little slower-”
“Shut up, you idiot!”
Look at these foolish mortals, their eyes red as they desperately tried to remember even a single word.
There were no Hungry Ghosts more stained by greed to the very depths of their souls than them.
For them, the greatest miracle was the blessing of gold.
“Beep!”
The parrot's beak closed with a signal sound.
Then the wildly excited people cried out.
“W, what was that?! I didn't catch a single thing!”
“I think Director Park wrote something down?”
“S, show us! Let everyone-”
“Crunch!”
“You crazy bastard! You swallowed the paper?”
“Crunch! S, secrets! Crunch! Only those meant to know should know-”
If I left them alone, they'd start grabbing each other by the collars.
I couldn't tell whether they were people or pigs.
“All right, all right. Please calm down.”
As if by magic, the room fell silent.
“What am I doing now?”
Before I knew it, I was kneeling before the sculpture.
Soon, people whose faces had turned bright red bowed humbly before the sculpture with the utmost reverence.
“Let us pray. Rooooo...!”
“Rooooo...!”
In that deeply devout atmosphere, I thought to myself.
What did it say earlier?
Something about Bugok-dong Saebit Apartment? Was it soaring? Crashing?
Couldn't it just tell me whether the price was going up or down?
Footnotes:
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